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The Photographic Portrait

Who would dispute the statement that having your picture taken is an unnatural act? **This workshop works with, through and around this reality rather than trying to deny *it. The goals of this practical, nuts and bolts *workshop are to assist participants in:

**Dealing with the sitter’s *discomfort
**Helping sitters to pose naturally
**Dealing with one’s own nervousness
**Learning to read and use non-verbal communication to enhance the ***portrait process
**Developing and honing a sense of timing with the shutter
**Learning to assess and use natural lighting
**Methodically building a pleasing composition
**Making the sitting into a collaboration
**Choosing the sitter’s appropriate clothing *
**Posing groups *

This workshop will include readings, lively discussion, camera work and an on-location demonstration of an environmental portrait using Polaroid materials, *during which Casanave and participants will methodically design a portrait from scratch.

MARTHA CASANAVE has been doing environmental portraiture for over thirty five years. *She prefers to photograph people in their own homes or studios, using the persons artifacts to furnish information--or ask questions--about them. *Among her portrait projects have been: The Third Wave: *Immigrants from the Soviet Union,*which won her the Imogen Cunningham Prize in 1979; *Israeli Women Activists, made possible by the Koret Israel Prize in 1989; and People in Photography (including *John Szarkowski, Cormell Capa, Lee Witkin, Leo Castelli, Ralph Gibson, Arnold Newman, Mary Ellen Mark, Ansel Adams, Beaumont Newhall, Brett Weston and many others).

Casanave’s photographs are included in many collections, including the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Chicago Art Institute, the Bibliotheque Nationale and the Portland Art Museum. *The J. Paul Getty Museum *recently acquired ten of her prints to add to their photography collection. *She has published three books: *Past Lives (Godine, 1991), *Beware of Dog (Center for Photographic Art, 2001) and Martha Casanave--Explorations Along an Imaginary Coastline (Hudson Hills Press, 2006).